SERAP Drags FG, Cross River to ECOWAS Court over Agba Jalingo’s Trial

A civil society organisation, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), has dragged the federal government and Cross River State government before the ECOWAS Court of Justice in Abuja over what it described as “the prolonged, arbitrary detention, unfair prosecution, persecution, and sham trial of a journalist, Mr. Agba Jalingo.

Jalingo, who is the publisher of CrossRiverWatch, was arrested on August 22, 2019 over a report alleging that Governor Ben Ayade diverted N500million belonging to the state.

In the suit number ECW/CCJ/APP/10/2020 filed last week at the ECOWAS Court, SERAP argued that the sole objective of the federal government and Cross River State government is to perpetually keep Agba Jalingo in detention and to silence him simply for expressing critical views and carrying out his legitimate job as journalist.

According to the suit, this is not the first time the federal government and Cross River State government have taken actions to intimidate, harass and suppress journalists through the instrumentality of trumped-up charges and use of overly broad and unjust laws, including Section 24 of Nigeria’s Cybercrime Act, 2015, which provides for the offence of cyber-stalking.

The suit filed on SERAP’s behalf by its solicitor, Mr. Kolawole Oluwadare, stated that the federal government and Cross River State government are using vague laws that give officials massive discretion to undermine human rights. It said the tiers of government are punishing Agba Jalingo and other journalists and silencing them for their reportage, thereby undermining Nigerians’ right to information, to public participation, to open and democratic governance in the country.

The suit read, in part: “If freedom of expression and media freedom are to have true meaning in a democracy, these rights necessarily must include the freedom to criticise the government and its functionaries. Indeed, the idea of a democracy is that the people are encouraged to express their criticisms, even their wrong-headed criticisms, of elected government institutions, in the expectation that this process will improve the process of government.

“The harassment, intimidation, unfair prosecution and arbitrary detention of Agba Jalingo simply for exercising his human rights violate Nigeria’s international human rights obligations, including under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights to which the country is a state party.

“Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right and full enjoyment of this right is central to achieving individual freedom and to developing democracy. It is not only the cornerstone of democracy, but indispensable to a thriving civil society.

“In circumstances of public debate concerning public figures in the political domain and public institutions, the value placed by human rights treaties upon uninhibited expression is particularly high.

“The government of Nigeria and the Cross-River state government of governor Ben Ayade have via the charges of terrorism and treason and denial of bail to Agba Jalingo, violated and continued to breach his human rights.”

SERAP contended that Agba Jalingo is being unfairly prosecuted because of his reporting in his online news outlet, Cross River Watch, which alleged that the Cross Rivers State Governor diverted the sum of N500million, belonging to the Cross-River Micro Finance Bank.

On August 22, 2019, the Nigeria Police, through its special anti-robbery squad arrested Agba Jalingo.

On  August 23, 2019, Jalingo was transferred to a detention facility run by the anti-cult and anti-kidnapping police in Calabar, the capital of Nigeria’s southern Cross River State and was held there for days before his arraignment on  August 31, 2019.

 No date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit.